US-Based Kenyan Scholar Wins the Prestigious Carnegie African Diaspora Fellowship

US-based Kenyan-born scholar Jonathan Choti has won the 2022 Carnegie African Diaspora Fellowship Program.

Choti, an assistant professor of African languages and cultures at Michigan State University, received the prestigious fellowship to co-develop and strengthen curriculum, grow research, and mentor graduate students in the Swahili Program at the University of Kabianga in Kenya. 

The Carnegie Scholar Fellowship Program supports educational projects at institutions of higher education in Africa and is designed for African-born scholars based in North America.

Choti, who is a faculty member in MSU’s Department of Linguistics, Languages, and Cultures, joins a list of 527 scholars who have received the fellowship since the inception of the program in 2013.

“I feel proud to be a recipient of this prestigious award and to know that hard work, determination, and grit can bear fruit. It’s a confirmation that my work is valuable and fulfilling and a confirmation of my goal to be better every day so I can best help my students,” Choti said.

Choti says he applied for the fellowship as it provides him an opportunity to share his American experience and education in his motherland. He is excited by the possibility of fostering cross-cultural exchanges between MSU and the University of Kabianga.

“Our educational systems are so different. I want to give back and enrich educational programs in Kenya and contribute to their growth. It feels really great to realize I’ll be there sharing knowledge, experience, and skills, and being a role model and motivator of young people,” he said.

Choti, who was born and raised in rural Kisii, attended Kisii High School before joining Egerton University where he pursued a BA with a double major in Swahili and English Linguistics and a minor in Sociology and an MA in English Language and Linguistics through a government scholarship. He then proceeded to Michigan State University to pursue his Ph.D. in Linguistics.

His two-month fellowship at the University of Kabianga, which became a full-fledged university in 2013, kicks off at the end of June and will last through August.